News

GSN MONDAY MAILER DECEMBER 03 2013

ALL.
BELOW PLEASE FIND A STATEMENT FROM THE CIRMA CONSEJO REGARDING THE CLOSURE AND RENOVATION. I HAVE RECEIVED SCORES OF MAIL ON THIS TOPIC, MULTIPLE PETITIONS, CALLS FOR ACTION AND I REFER YOU TO THE GSN FACEBOOK PAGE SHOULD YOU WISH TO LEARN MORE, OR YOU MAY CONTACT CIRMA DIRECTLY AT THE MAIL BELOW. THERE IS ALSO A PETITION BELOW THAT YOU MAY WISH TO SIGN (SEE #2), AND AN OPEN LETTER ATTACHED ABOVE

1. STATEMENT REGARDING CIRMA CLOSING/ RENOVATION FROM THE CIRMA CONSEJO
2. MAJOR PETITION REGARDING THE CLOSING OF CIRMA
3. CALL FOR EXPERT WITNESS ON REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST INDIVIDUAL FROM SAN JUAN ATITAN HUEHUETENANGO—- PLEASE HELP
4. GUATEMALA: WAS IT GENOCIDE? LINK BELOW FROM GSN’ER DAVID STOLL
5. LA CAMIONETA NOW AVAILABLE ON ITUNES
6. GREAT INTERVIEW WITH RODRIGO REY ROSA
7. MESA PUBLICA ROUNTABLE ON GENOCIDE WITH GSN’ERS JEAN MARIE SIMON AND DAVID STOLL TODAY AT 3 PM EST
8. NAPA OT FIELDSCHOOL THIS SUMMER IN ANTIGUA

We the below, concerned scholars of Guatemala and Latin America, are troubled by the recent, sudden closing for an indefinite period of the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica (CIRMA). The reason given for the action was that repairs had to be made on the institution’s physical plant.
We are not in a position to assess the validity of the explanation, but the reports we have heard are disturbing, including that long-term employees of CIRMA were treated in a heavy-handed and disrespectful way during the closing, including having a heavily armed security guard at the door as they were being notified of the collective firing.
The lack of transparency and discussion that led up to and followed this action has likewise generated a series of rumors, which we can’t confirm but are nonetheless troubling. These include:
● The fear that the documentary archive, or collections therein, will be scattered in different locations and/or transferred out of the country;
● The fear that sensitive archives such as the collections on the armed conflict may not be protected out of political motives.
● That “donated” or “on loan” collections of documents and photography are being illegally handled (many of CIRMA's collections have the status of Patrimonio Nacional, and all are governed by convenios signed by donors and the institution, many of which stipulate making the collection available to the public as a condition of the donation); and that donors of important collections are petitioning for a return of their materials (we’ve heard reports that the Arévalo family has taken steps to retrieve its collection and that Julio Cambranes’ documents have been removed) – which will have a chilling effect on future donations.
Whatever the truth of the above fears and rumors, what is clear is that the archives will be unavailable for consultation for one to two years at a crucial time: collections held by CIRMA are providing key supporting documentation in the trial of Rios Montt and other high-profile human rights cases.
CIRMA’s closing also takes place during a particularly inopportune time for the region as a whole. In El Salvador, Tutela Legal’s human rights archive has recently been closed, shortly followed by the destruction (by an armed group) of the archives of Probusqueda, an NGO that investigates the location of children kidnapped by the Salvadoran military during that country’s civil war. In Guatemala last year, Otto Pérez Molina closed the Archivos de la Paz within SEPAZ.
We believe the shuttering of CIRMA – whatever the conditions that precipitated it — contributes to the current threat facing the recovery of historical memory in Central America. The anger and confusion in Guatemala’s scholarly community over CIRMA’s closing – and the manner in which it was carried out – is palpable.
The loss of CIRMA’s archive and library would be devastating to Guatemala and a violation of its cultural and historical patrimony – no less so than the selling off of stolen historical documents in international auction houses.
We are even more concerned that prosecutors and lawyers involved in human rights cases continue to have access to relevant information.
We ask not just for clarification but a commitment to 1. keep the collections intact and in country; 2. respect relevant national laws governing archives as well as the specific convenios of each collection; 3. make CIRMA’s archive accessible as soon as possible to researchers in its temporary location; and 4. allow prosecutors and other legal workers access to relevant documents related to legal cases.
In short, we are asking CIRMA to live up to its own “fundamental value” of transparency, as stated on its website.
We understand that the maintenance of CIRMA, its archive, photograph collection, and library has entailed a significant financial burden. And we appreciate that a new form of financing and governance might be necessary, but that process should include the wider community of Guatemalan and Guatemalanist scholars.
If these issues are not addressed, we will request that the Latin American Studies Association convene a committee of inquiry to assess the situation.

3. CALL FOR EXPERT WITNESS ON REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST INDIVIDUAL FROM SAN JUAN ATITAN HUEHUETENANGO—- PLEASE HELP

I am writing to you from Social Justice Collaborative, a nonprofit organization in Oakland, CA. We are representing a client in removal proceedings from San Juan Atitan, Huehuetenango. We are looking for an expert to testify in this case against his deportation.

Do you have any recommendations or know any other professors who are familiar with the issues presented to indigenous Guatemalans?

I hope to hear from you soon. His court date is in January so we need to find someone soon.

Could you include the following link to the Spanish version of "Guatemala –Hubo Genocidio?" Contrapoder published an abbreviated version in its November 29 print magazine and this is the complete version, including a chart of the witnesses against Ríos Montt in chronological order.

http://www.contrapoder.com.gt/es/edicion31/actualidad/913/Guatemala-%C2%BFHubo-genocidio.htm
My argument is that war crimes is a better indictment than genocide because it fits the experience of a wider spectrum of survivors. When Rios Montt was indicted for genocide, a substantial number of Nebajenses objected because, as far as they were concerned, they owed their lives to Rios Montt's amnesty. Yet most Nebajenses agree that both sides committed atrocities, and many would also agree that the army did more killing of noncombatants than the guerrillas did. Therefore, I think war crimes indictments –mainly of the army but also of the guerrillas, for particular incidents such as the Chacalté massacre—would be accepted by more of the survivors.

5. LA CAMIONETA NOW AVAILABLE ON ITUNES

LA CAMIONETA is now available for educational screenings and library acquisitions through Bullfrog Films, and that we'll be releasing the film on iTunes tomorrow (11/26).
As was the case with our theatrical run, we don't have excessive ambitions, but if we can make a small splash during our opening week, there's a good chance the film could be given a favorable placement within the iTunes Store and end up reaching many more eyes and ears than otherwise possible. You never know what might happen, and it's certainly worth a shot. Some of your members might appreciate the heads-up, though, so perhaps there's an easy way to include the direct link or the attached photo?

7. MESA PUBLICA ROUNTABLE ON GENOCIDE WITH GSN’ERS JEAN MARIE SIMON AND DAVID STOLL TODAY AT 3 PM EST
On Monday, Dec. 2 at 2 PM CST/3PM EST we're hosting an online conversation in English with anthropologist David Stoll and photographer Jean-Marie Simon about the recent genocide charges against former dictator Efraín Rios Montt.
To listen to the show and participate go to: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mesapublica/2013/12/02/was-there-genocide-en-guatemala-1
More about the show:
Earlier this year, a Guatemalan court convicted former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt of overseeing acts of genocide against Guatemala’s Ixil Mayan population in 1982 and 1983. The verdict was based on the testimony of ninety-five indigenous witnesses from the Ixil area. Despite their horrifying accounts of what happened to them and their families, some Ixils and K’iche’s object to the verdict because they credit Ríos Montt with saving their lives. Was Ríos Montt’s “amnesty” for guerrilla supporters a significant element of what happened in the Ixil area? Should it have played a greater role in the trial? Is “genocide” the best description of what happened there?
Guests on the show:
David Stoll is an anthropologist who has been working with the people of northern Quiché since the 1980s. Following the verdict against Ríos Montt, Stoll spent two weeks interviewing Ixils, K’iche’s and Ladinos in Nebaj. The weekly magazine Contrapoder has just published his analysis of what Nebajenses told him, as well as of the testimony of the trial witnesses. His most recent book is El Norte or Bust! How Migration Fever and Microcredit Produced a Financial Crash in a Guatemalan Town.
Jean-Marie Simon, a graduate of Harvard Law School, worked in Guatemala from 1980 to 1991. She wrote and co-authored six human reports for Human Rights Watch/NY. Her book, Guatemala: Eternal Spring-Eternal Tyranny (WW Norton 1987), depicts the height of Guatemala's internal armed conflict.

8. NAPA OT FIELDSCHOOL THIS SUMMER IN ANTIGUA

*Call** for Students: NAPA-OT Field School in Antigua, Guatemala*

The NAPA-OT Field School in Antigua, Guatemala is now recruiting anthropology, occupational therapy public health, and other social science students for its four-week summer session: June 2 – 27, 2014.

The field school offers transdisciplinary learning to promote leadership in social justice through collaboration with Guatemala-based NGO and other community partners.
*Graduate students and upper division undergraduate majors in applied or medical anthropology or related social sciences are encouraged to apply via our website www.napaotguatemala.org <http://www.napaotguatemala.org/> by December 31, 2013. * The field school is a project of the NAPA-OT SIG (National Association for the Practice of Anthropology – Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group) of the American Anthropological Association. Faculty include anthropologists and occupational therapists with credentials and interests in health care access and human rights, child development, and public health.

The objectives of the program are:

· To explore efforts to achieve social justice in Guatemala, a country with a history of ethnic and class violence · To examine health disparities in Guatemala through applied medical anthropology theory and human rights discourse · To understand the determinants of health and basic epidemiology in developing nations · To provide a transdisciplinary fieldwork opportunity to students of occupational therapy, anthropology, and related subjects · To promote social justice through partnerships in and around Antigua, Guatemala with NGOs, community groups, health care workers, and other social change agents · To explore the concept of “occupational justice” as an emerging practice area in occupational therapy and applied anthropology

*Applicants students will have the opportunity to work in one of three project groups:*

Students also will study Spanish a minimum of 9 hours per week, working one-on-one with certified language instructors at their own level and pace. Visit our website for more information at www.napaotguatemala.org.